


Seeing the World from Waist Level

by tigercry



Series: Paralyzed Lightning Flash [1]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, I take requests, Kirito's a supportive boyfriend, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, asuna's paralyzed, written 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:33:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25244695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigercry/pseuds/tigercry
Summary: When an attempt on Asuna's life due to her being the daughter of a CEO left her paralyzed from the waist down; she accepted that she'd only be seen as a failure for the rest of her life. However, then came a blessing in the form of SAO.After SAO was over though she knew she would have to tell him and hope that he'd extend his loving hand in supporting her as a equal at his side. Just like he always had.
Relationships: Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Series: Paralyzed Lightning Flash [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828843
Kudos: 52





	Seeing the World from Waist Level

**Author's Note:**

> This may end up with a sequel, buuut we'll see seeing how it's still an old piece Xd

SAO in a way had been a blessing to Asuna, her life had essentially fallen apart last year after an attempt on her life due to her being the daughter of a CEO, and now everything had changed. Her sister Kizmel had taken her from her parents for a little while as she adjusted. Adjusted to having her entire world turned upside down and her parents' hopes and dreams for her crushed like a tiny bug.

Asuna could hardly breathe, she was trembling in fear, her amber eyes were wide, scared and full of tears, and she wanted to believe it was all a dream. But it wasn't, being forced to stand there with her wrists tied, a gag in her mouth that was making her throat and mouth itch, and with the tip of a knife poking at her spine made the fourteen-year-old want to cry and hope desperately that it was just a dream.

Seconds later it was confirmed that it wasn't a dream when her body went rigid, she screamed through the cloth in her mouth and she arched her back, pain riddling her entire body in that one action from the man behind her. She heard the gunshot but saw nothing as her knees buckled and she kept screaming, wanting the pain to go away, to leave her alone, in peace.

She could hear a man yelling something about not letting her fall, but it was too late as her shoulder came in contact with hard cement and the rest of her body followed suit. Asuna nearly blacked out when her head hit the pavement, but was rudely kept awake by the sudden massive spike of pain in her back. It felt like each nerve was on fire, like she was hyper-aware of the area directly around the injury and the way her upper part of her spine was slowly growing with pain.

"Asuna! You'll be okay, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry pumpkin!"

Asuna vaguely heard her father practically sobbing and felt his tears dripping onto her face, the liquid causing even more pain to riddle her small body, but couldn't respond, sobbing herself and screaming while her back made the teenager want to die just to take the pain away, it hurt… it hurt like she was on fire…

Suddenly the pain around the injury and anywhere lower vanished, leaving Asuna with relief but blurry confusion.

"W-What do you mean she won't walk again?" Those were the last words Asuna heard, the words sounded slurred and confused in her brain, but the message rang clear. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

* * *

After that point, living in a wheelchair and more than mildly depressed, Asuna lived on autopilot, doing what she was told and throwing herself into forgetting what happened to her. Soon she became the top student at her school despite not physically going to school almost at all and went to therapy after therapy to try and fix her back. She wasn't paralyzed, cause she could bend her knees, wiggle her toes, get her legs to stretch out in front of her, but she couldn't consciously move them amongst the other problem. Every day more than a few times a day she would get these excruciating fits of pain at the messed up area of her spine, the pain was bad enough that she usually couldn't do much other than groan and or cry, and had to be lying down on her stomach or sitting slumped in something during them. The last issue was the biggest problem, Asuna couldn't walk. She couldn't handle her own body weight on top of her back screaming at her and flaring up badly at the added pressure, so she was confined to a wheelchair, and her mother was unforgiving about it. Her father was more guilty than anything, her brother tried to take care of her and help when he could, and her older sister Kizmel took her away for six months, home to Kizmel's house and away from her controlling and always disappointed mother.

However, it was SAO that gave Asuna ironically, the will to live again. At first it had been hard to get used to, being able to run, jump, sprint around, and move without confinements was hard but enthralling. For a while she had forgotten that she and ten-thousands other players were trapped in the game as she got used to her freedom and giddily defeated monster after monster, met other players, and only Argo, the first person Asuna had met in the game, knew about how Asuna, Aincrad's Princess and the Lightning Flash wasn't able to walk IRL. Argo comforted her like a big sister through the still painful bouts she got in her back that were a lot more sparse and could usually escape them for days at a time, and eventually, even Kirito helped her through them too. The sweet Black Swordsman found out about the bouts of pain the hard way when they had been working together to solve a murder mystery only to had Asuna collapse on the way back from talking to a player named Yoroko, her face whiter than a sheet and would've been sweating if it had been the real world.

"A-chan!" Argo burst through the door of the inn room, brown eyes wide, and yet all Asuna could do was groan weakly and look like she was going to get sick from where she was sprawled on her stomach on the inn room bed with Kirito standing worriedly near her.

"What's wrong with her?" Kirito asked the short blonde as she scurried over to Asuna and quickly manipulated Asuna's menu for her.

"Not the time to explain Kii-boi, just turn around and be quiet for a minute." Argo huffed, most of her accent having bled out of her voice in her concern for Asuna, "it's complicated and has to do with her Nerve Gear." She quickly switched Asuna's equipment from the rather close fitting KoB uniform to looser casual clothing once Kirito had turned around, pushed back her hood properly, sat down and gently applied a little pressure to Asuna's spine just below her neck. "That painful?"

A twitch of the head no.

"Her Nerve Gear? But I've seen Asuna fight for the past year and a half, she doesn't have any sensual impairments," Kirito turned around after a few moments, having heard the bell sound of the equipment manikin's equipment being confirmed and locked in place. "And what kind of Nerve Gear affects her back?"

"Not back, spine," Argo responded back and lightly pushed down between Asuna's shoulder blades, "here?" Another no. "What about here?" just below her ribs.

Asuna flinched but shook her head.

"Not the source, gotcha," She frowned and lightly touched Asuna's back at the waist, only to have Asuna stiffen up and groan, "there it is."

"There's what?" Kirito asked, highly confused, "what's going on?"

"Asuna's nerve gear has these weird shorts where it gives her these massive spikes of _actual pain_ instead of the dimmed discomfort, and she can't move without her hp draining like it's got a leech problem."

* * *

Since then Kirito had comforted Asuna through them, even in the middle of the night after a raid or long day of labyrinth mapping when her groan of pain woke both of them. But she hadn't really thought about what would happen after SAO. When they got out of the game how would Kirito react to finding out that she couldn't walk? That she wasn't as strong as she appeared to be in the game?

It was something that haunted her over the first month of being free from the game with him. While he had been moved to the room next door under her quiet request, she was still nervous and uneasy about the upcoming conversation and had even pleaded with her father not to tell him yet so that _she_ could tell him, herself.

She knew his sister and aunt knew, they both always smiled encouragingly at her even though she wasn't making any movements toward getting out of the hospital bed she was in. They even helped fend off some of Kirito's worries that Asuna wasn't getting better since he hadn't seen her stand up yet. At four weeks after getting out of SAO, she had to tell him. He was worrying more than what was healthy.

And so here they were, Kirito perched on the hospital bed next to her, looked at her with his gently concerned onyx colored eyes Asuna loved so much and never wanted to lose.

Asuna was sitting up, and had gotten her sister's help in having her legs hanging over the edge of the bed before Kirito got there, and her amber gaze was currently directed at her lap, unable to say what she wanted to say, the words escaping her usually strategic and intelligent mind. "I…" She took a deep breath, "I-I have to tell you something," she said quietly at a volume that Kirito could hardly hear. "B-but please don't run away from me."

Kirito's hand rested comfortingly on her back, fingers splayed and Asuna let his warmth help comfort her and give her the courage she needed. "Why would I ever run away from you?"

"B-because," Asuna stammered, "IRL I'm a different person, I'm… I'm not capable and as strong as I was in SAO, K-Kirito." Her amber eyes gazed over blankly at a wall as she lifted her head, "I'm a broken warrior now."

Kirito scooted a little closer to her and half awkwardly took one of her hands in his free one, "so? I'm not as strong here either, I'm just a smart loner with no social skills and a million flaws. What could make you do different Asuna? Even here IRL you're amazingly strong, and you still Asuna the Lightning Flash, and my very beautiful partner," his thumb lightly brushed over the bare skin on her ring finger where her wedding band in SAO had rested for little over a month. "None of that could change, ever-"

"I can't walk Kirito," Asuna spoke in a rather ashamed whisper and looked away from him and down at her feet, tears gathering in her amber eyes, "I'm practically paralyzed here, IRL. I'm not capable of being that independent and strong person you and everyone else knew in SAO," tears threatened to fall and she clenched a fistful of her blue-ish white pants with her free hand, "I can't even stand," her voice wobbled and she sniffled to keep back her tears, "the reason I had that Nerve Gear problem is because of my spine in the real world, I get identical but more painful fits if I even try to stand up or even if I'm doing nothing at all!" Tears spilled down her face, angry with herself that she couldn't be the Asuna Kirito had fallen in love with when she couldn't do much of anything without someone's help. She sobbed, "I had to relearn how to stand and walk in SAO, and the only reason Argo wouldn't sell you the information about the Nerve Gear malfunction was that it's a lie! I had to lie to everyone, after all I had to fight, and Argo had… Argo had to teach me how to walk and jump, and fight! I spent the first month working to stay upright and be normal!" She ducked her head, "and after having to carry the weight of ten-thousand players on your shoulders for two years, why would you be okay with the fact that I can't walk, or do anything here IRL?' She sobbed some more, "I'm just a broken warrior now Kirito, a warrior that can't stand on her own two feet!"

After a few moments, where Asuna though Kirito was going to leave, she felt him wrap his arms tightly around her thin body and hold her head close to his chest, lightly running his fingers through her long hair and shaking a little alongside her.

"I would never leave you," Asuna heard Kirito speak in a rather thick tone, "and Asuna, you're even stronger and more beautiful than before," she didn't get a chance to object as he continued, sounding as though he may cry himself. "You went through so much more than even I did in SAO, you had to go through so much… so much just to be able to fight for all of our freedom and flawlessly pretend you weren't harboring this secret, and I love you, even more for it." He swallowed hard and gathered Asuna a little more in his arms, holding her just a little closer, "do you remember when I told you that if I found another side to the one I love I'd love them even more?"

Asuna, who had fallen silent through Kirito's short explanation, burst into tears again and returned the embrace with all her strength, crying into his shirt, finally relieved of what she had thought would happen when she told him only to be proved wrong.

"You told me that when we escaped to the real world you'd find me and fall in love with me again," Kirito's voice was thick with emotion again and Asuna felt him press his lips to the top of her head once he finished his sentence, "well I've already done it, _I've already fallen in love with you again, my beautiful warrior._ "

Asuna just cried, touched by Kirito's words and having finally found peace for the first time since she had returned to the real world.


End file.
